Brittenburg
Encyclopedia
The Brittenburg, or Lugdunum Batavorum, is a Roman ruin west of Leiden that was visible on the beach between Katwijk aan Zee
and Noordwijk aan Zee after storms in the years of 1520, 1552 and 1562. It was quite a large complex located at the mouth of the Oude Rijn (old river Rhine), which today is believed to be about a kilometer westwards (offshore in the North Sea
) of the current location of the European Space Research and Technology Centre
.
A copy of the old Roman map Tabula Peutingeriana
shows Brittenburg as Lugduno on the coast with two towers. Eastwards from that point, two roads run towards Noviomagi (Nijmegen). Along the northern route, the following towns can be seen: Pretorium Agrippine (Valkenburg (South Holland)
), Matilone (Leiden), Albanianis (Alphen aan den Rijn
), Nigropullo (Zwammerdam
), and Lauri (Woerden
). All of these locations are situated on the Oude Rijn. The southern route begins with the town Forum Hadriani
(Voorburg
), shown directly south of Matilone. These towns were connected by the Fossa Corbulonis or Corbulo-canal.
The first mention of the Brittenburg in a Dutch text is in a poem of Willem van Hildegaersberch in 1401, who called it Borch te Bretten. In 1490 there is also a mention of the visibility of the "burg te Britten". The 'discovery' was in 1520 when a storm exposed the whole complex and Roman artefacts (mainly stones and coins), were found. Some coins were dated, with the latest date being 270
. The oldest picture of the Brittenburg is a woodcut (identified by Leiden professor Jan Hendrik Holwerda, curator of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
) by Abraham Ortelius
in 1562 for Lodovico Guicciardini
's first edition of The Low Countreys, printed in 1589 by Christophe Plantin
in Antwerp. This woodcut was replaced in later editions with an engraving. The oldest picture was used later by Zacharias Heyns (1598, 1599) and Hermann Moll (1734, 1736). It concerns a land surveyor's draft (trigonometry), in which the distance from the ruins (by that time in the North Sea and only visible at low tide) westward to the church of Katwijk
is mentioned, namely 1,200 'schreden' (= 1,080 meters).
Brittenburg was part of the Roman border defense (limes
), as the guard post (castellum
) called Lugduno, the western-most position situated the along the Old Rhine, which formed the northern frontier of the Roman province Germania Inferior
. Given the square shape of the inner structure, the Brittenburg was probably a lighthouse
after the model of the lighthouse of Ostia Antica
with a height of about 60 meters and a basis of 72 x 72 meters. Some historians see in the plan also a granary, but for this a dryer, more inland location would have made more sense.
), has been sought since the middle ages. When the remains at Katwijk were rediscovered in 1520, they were (incorrectly) called Brittenburg for this reason. There were many burchts in this area that fell into disuse and were later torn down to reuse the stones in construction.
was discovered by Conrad Celtes
around 1500, Leiden scholars assumed that an old shell keep
in the city center called the Burcht van Leiden
, at the spot where the Leidse Rijn
met the Oude Rijn, was Lugduno. Leiden has called itself (incorrectly) Lugdunum Batavorum for this reason. The Latin name of Leiden University
is Academia Lugduno Batava. The Batava was only added to distinguish Leiden from another Lugdunum
s. This term is even more unfortunately chosen, since those same scholars also assumed that Leiden was located within the old Batavia (region), which was in fact much further east, near Germany. Lugdunum was in the territory of the Cananefates, not the Batavi. Today Leiden is associated with the town Matilone on the tabula, and even that spot is considered to be a location somewhat eastwards of the Burcht van Leiden, at the site of a former cloister called Roomburg.
, who lined up his soldiers and artillery on the beach and declared war on Neptune
, god of the sea. After that he claimed victory over the ocean and commanded his men to collect shells as war booty. As a monument to this victory he built a tall lighthouse. This story resulted in a search for Caligula's lighthouse. In the 16th century, when many early tourists came to see the Brittenburg at low tide, people from Katwijk reported that their fishing nets were regularly stuck behind the stones of what they called "Kalla's tower" (Kalla = Caligula). This story of Caligula is probable, because a wine barrel was found originating from his personal vineyard in this area.
, that is said to have been founded by Caligula
. Modern archeologists have found traces of Roman infrastructure and have installed ways to see these in the modern landscape.
.
Katwijk aan Zee
Katwijk aan Zee is a seaside resort located on the North Sea at the mouth of the Oude Rijn. It is situated in the municipality of Katwijk and the province of South Holland.- History :...
and Noordwijk aan Zee after storms in the years of 1520, 1552 and 1562. It was quite a large complex located at the mouth of the Oude Rijn (old river Rhine), which today is believed to be about a kilometer westwards (offshore in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
) of the current location of the European Space Research and Technology Centre
European Space Research and Technology Centre
The European Space Research and Technology Centre is the European Space Agency's main technology development and test centre for spacecraft and space technology. It is situated in Noordwijk, South Holland, in the western Netherlands....
.
History
The site, known as "Brittenburg", was still visible in the dunes in the fourteenth century, but the gradual advance of the sea made the ruins lie on the beach in the sixteenth and seventeenth century. Today, they must be somewhere in the Rhine estuary, inaccessible for archaeological research. All that remains is a small set of finds, taken away in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, and a famous map by Ortelius.A copy of the old Roman map Tabula Peutingeriana
Tabula Peutingeriana
The Tabula Peutingeriana is an itinerarium showing the cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire. The original map of which this is a unique copy was last revised in the fourth or early fifth century. It covers Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa...
shows Brittenburg as Lugduno on the coast with two towers. Eastwards from that point, two roads run towards Noviomagi (Nijmegen). Along the northern route, the following towns can be seen: Pretorium Agrippine (Valkenburg (South Holland)
Valkenburg (South Holland)
Valkenburg is a village and former municipality in the province of South Holland, in thewestern Netherlands. Valkenburg is now part of the municipality Katwijk....
), Matilone (Leiden), Albanianis (Alphen aan den Rijn
Alphen aan den Rijn
Alphen aan den Rijn is a town and municipality in the western Netherlands, in the province of South Holland, between Leiden and Utrecht. The town is situated on the banks of the river Oude Rijn , where the river Gouwe branches off. The municipality had a population of 72,674 in 2010, and covers an...
), Nigropullo (Zwammerdam
Zwammerdam
Zwammerdam is a town in the Dutch province of South Holland. It is a part of the municipality of Alphen aan den Rijn, and lies about 6 km southeast of Alphen aan de Rijn.In 2001, the town of Zwammerdam had 1709 inhabitants...
), and Lauri (Woerden
Woerden
Woerden is a municipality and a city in the central Netherlands. Due to its central location between Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague and Utrecht, and the fact that it has excellent rail and road connections to those cities, it is a popular town for commuters who work in those cities.-Population...
). All of these locations are situated on the Oude Rijn. The southern route begins with the town Forum Hadriani
Forum Hadriani
Forum Hadriani, at the modern town of Voorburg, was the northern-most Roman city on the European continent and the second oldest city of The Netherlands. It was located in the Roman province Germania Inferior and is mentioned on the Tabula Peutingeriana, a Roman road map.The site Forum Hadriani...
(Voorburg
Voorburg
Voorburg is a Dutch town and former municipality in the western part of the province of South Holland, the Netherlands. As also Leidschendam and Stompwijk, it is part of the municipality Leidschendam-Voorburg. It has approximately 39,000 inhabitants....
), shown directly south of Matilone. These towns were connected by the Fossa Corbulonis or Corbulo-canal.
The first mention of the Brittenburg in a Dutch text is in a poem of Willem van Hildegaersberch in 1401, who called it Borch te Bretten. In 1490 there is also a mention of the visibility of the "burg te Britten". The 'discovery' was in 1520 when a storm exposed the whole complex and Roman artefacts (mainly stones and coins), were found. Some coins were dated, with the latest date being 270
270
Year 270 was a common year starting on Saturday of the Julian calendar. At the time, it was known as the Year of the Consulship of Antiochianus and Orfitus...
. The oldest picture of the Brittenburg is a woodcut (identified by Leiden professor Jan Hendrik Holwerda, curator of the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
Rijksmuseum van Oudheden
The Rijksmuseum van Oudheden is the national archaeological museum of the Netherlands. It is located in Leiden. The Museum grew out of the collection of Leiden University and still closely co-operates with its Faculty of Archaeology...
) by Abraham Ortelius
Abraham Ortelius
thumb|250px|Abraham Ortelius by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]Abraham Ortelius thumb|250px|Abraham Ortelius by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]Abraham Ortelius (Abraham Ortels) thumb|250px|Abraham Ortelius by [[Peter Paul Rubens]]Abraham Ortelius (Abraham Ortels) (April 14, 1527 – June 28,exile in England to take...
in 1562 for Lodovico Guicciardini
Lodovico Guicciardini
Lodovico Guicciardini was an Italian writer and merchant from Florence, but who lived primarily in Antwerp. He was the nephew of historian and diplomat Francesco Guicciardini.-Description of the Low Countries:...
's first edition of The Low Countreys, printed in 1589 by Christophe Plantin
Christophe Plantin
Christophe Plantin was an influential Renaissance humanist and book printer and publisher.-Life:...
in Antwerp. This woodcut was replaced in later editions with an engraving. The oldest picture was used later by Zacharias Heyns (1598, 1599) and Hermann Moll (1734, 1736). It concerns a land surveyor's draft (trigonometry), in which the distance from the ruins (by that time in the North Sea and only visible at low tide) westward to the church of Katwijk
Katwijk
Katwijk is a coastal municipality and town in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. It has a population of 61,292.-Location:...
is mentioned, namely 1,200 'schreden' (= 1,080 meters).
Brittenburg was part of the Roman border defense (limes
Limes
A limes was a border defense or delimiting system of Ancient Rome. It marked the boundaries of the Roman Empire.The Latin noun limes had a number of different meanings: a path or balk delimiting fields, a boundary line or marker, any road or path, any channel, such as a stream channel, or any...
), as the guard post (castellum
Castellum
A castellum is a small Roman detached fort or fortlet used as a watch tower or signal station. The Latin word castellum is a diminutive of castra , which in turn is the plural of castrum ; it is the source of the English word "castle".The term castellum was also used to refer to a settling or...
) called Lugduno, the western-most position situated the along the Old Rhine, which formed the northern frontier of the Roman province Germania Inferior
Germania Inferior
Germania Inferior was a Roman province located on the left bank of the Rhine, in today's Luxembourg, southern Netherlands, parts of Belgium, and North Rhine-Westphalia left of the Rhine....
. Given the square shape of the inner structure, the Brittenburg was probably a lighthouse
Lighthouse
A lighthouse is a tower, building, or other type of structure designed to emit light from a system of lamps and lenses or, in older times, from a fire, and used as an aid to navigation for maritime pilots at sea or on inland waterways....
after the model of the lighthouse of Ostia Antica
Ostia Antica
Ostia Antica is a large archeological site, close to the modern suburb of Ostia , that was the location of the harbour city of ancient Rome, which is approximately 30 km to the northeast. "Ostia" in Latin means "mouth". At the mouth of the River Tiber, Ostia was Rome's seaport, but, due to...
with a height of about 60 meters and a basis of 72 x 72 meters. Some historians see in the plan also a granary, but for this a dryer, more inland location would have made more sense.
Burcht te Bretten
There has been a lot of confusion about the terms Brittenburg and Lugdunum Batavorum. The mysterious 'burcht te Bretten', a castle situated supposedly somewhere around Leiden (Bretten is the oldest name for the area between Leiden and the North SeaNorth Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
), has been sought since the middle ages. When the remains at Katwijk were rediscovered in 1520, they were (incorrectly) called Brittenburg for this reason. There were many burchts in this area that fell into disuse and were later torn down to reuse the stones in construction.
Burcht van Leiden
When the Tabula PeutingerianaTabula Peutingeriana
The Tabula Peutingeriana is an itinerarium showing the cursus publicus, the road network in the Roman Empire. The original map of which this is a unique copy was last revised in the fourth or early fifth century. It covers Europe, parts of Asia and North Africa...
was discovered by Conrad Celtes
Conrad Celtes
Conrad Celtes , also Konrad Celtis and Latin Conradus Celtis , was a German Renaissance humanist scholar and Neo-Latin poet.-Life:...
around 1500, Leiden scholars assumed that an old shell keep
Shell keep
A shell keep is a style of medieval fortification, best described as a stone structure circling the top of a motte.In English castle morphology, shell keeps are perceived as the successors to motte-and-bailey castles, with the wooden fence around the top of the motte replaced by a stone wall...
in the city center called the Burcht van Leiden
Burcht van Leiden
The burcht van Leiden is an old Shell keep in Leiden constructed in the 11th century. It is located at the spot where two tributaries of the Rhine come together, the Leidse Rijn, and another river, now a canal...
, at the spot where the Leidse Rijn
Leidse Rijn
The Leidse Rijn is a canal in the province of Utrecht, Netherlands.It was dug since the Middle Ages when the meandering old Rhine course silted up....
met the Oude Rijn, was Lugduno. Leiden has called itself (incorrectly) Lugdunum Batavorum for this reason. The Latin name of Leiden University
Leiden University
Leiden University , located in the city of Leiden, is the oldest university in the Netherlands. The university was founded in 1575 by William, Prince of Orange, leader of the Dutch Revolt in the Eighty Years' War. The royal Dutch House of Orange-Nassau and Leiden University still have a close...
is Academia Lugduno Batava. The Batava was only added to distinguish Leiden from another Lugdunum
Lugdunum
Colonia Copia Claudia Augusta Lugdunum was an important Roman city in Gaul. The city was founded in 43 BC by Lucius Munatius Plancus. It served as the capital of the Roman province Gallia Lugdunensis. To 300 years after its foundation Lugdunum was the most important city to the west part of Roman...
s. This term is even more unfortunately chosen, since those same scholars also assumed that Leiden was located within the old Batavia (region), which was in fact much further east, near Germany. Lugdunum was in the territory of the Cananefates, not the Batavi. Today Leiden is associated with the town Matilone on the tabula, and even that spot is considered to be a location somewhat eastwards of the Burcht van Leiden, at the site of a former cloister called Roomburg.
Tower of Kalla
The Roman historian Gaius Suetonius Tranquillus wrote a story about the emperor CaligulaCaligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
, who lined up his soldiers and artillery on the beach and declared war on Neptune
Neptune
Neptune is the eighth and farthest planet from the Sun in the Solar System. Named for the Roman god of the sea, it is the fourth-largest planet by diameter and the third largest by mass. Neptune is 17 times the mass of Earth and is slightly more massive than its near-twin Uranus, which is 15 times...
, god of the sea. After that he claimed victory over the ocean and commanded his men to collect shells as war booty. As a monument to this victory he built a tall lighthouse. This story resulted in a search for Caligula's lighthouse. In the 16th century, when many early tourists came to see the Brittenburg at low tide, people from Katwijk reported that their fishing nets were regularly stuck behind the stones of what they called "Kalla's tower" (Kalla = Caligula). This story of Caligula is probable, because a wine barrel was found originating from his personal vineyard in this area.
Valkenburg
Considered to be part of Lugdunum was the Roman army supply base Praetorium Agrippinae, modern ValkenburgValkenburg (South Holland)
Valkenburg is a village and former municipality in the province of South Holland, in thewestern Netherlands. Valkenburg is now part of the municipality Katwijk....
, that is said to have been founded by Caligula
Caligula
Caligula , also known as Gaius, was Roman Emperor from 37 AD to 41 AD. Caligula was a member of the house of rulers conventionally known as the Julio-Claudian dynasty. Caligula's father Germanicus, the nephew and adopted son of Emperor Tiberius, was a very successful general and one of Rome's most...
. Modern archeologists have found traces of Roman infrastructure and have installed ways to see these in the modern landscape.
New Brittenburg
South west of the Brittenburg is now the sole reminder to the building: the bus stop Nieuw Brittenburg (New Brittenburg), the main bus stop for the city centre and the beach of KatwijkKatwijk
Katwijk is a coastal municipality and town in the province of South Holland in the western Netherlands. It has a population of 61,292.-Location:...
.